Supreme Court asks Bengal govt to provide data on inclusion of castes in OBC list for quota benefits

The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued notice to concerned respondents on a petition by the West Bengal Government challenging the Calcutta High Court's decision to cancel all OBC certificates issued in the state after 2010.

The top court has also sent notices to the private litigants who challenged the inclusion of 77 castes, primarily Muslims, in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list at the Calcutta High Court, PTI reported.

On May 22, the high court annulled the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal, granted since 2010, ruling that such reservations for state service and post vacancies were illegal.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said, “Issue notice, including on the application of stay (of the judgment filed by the state government).”

“The state of West Bengal shall file an affidavit before this court explaining the process followed for classification of 77 communities as OBCs : (1) the nature of survey; (2) whether there was a lack of consultation with the Commission (state backward panel) in respect of any communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs,” the bench said.

The bench also inquired if the state had conducted any consultations regarding the sub-classification of OBCs. The state government has appealed the high court's decision, as per PTI reports.

"Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion" for declaring these communities as OBCs, the high court had said and added that it "is of the view that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is an affront to the Muslim community as a whole"," the apex court said.

Overall, the high court invalidated reservations for 77 classes given between April and September 2010, and 37 classes established under a 2012 law.

(With PTI inputs)